Sunday, September 14, 2008

You're What?! Tin Roof! Rusted!

On Friday night, my friends and I saw the B-52s at the Memphis Botanic Gardens. I've been a huge fan since I was eight years old, listening to "Loveshack" on my parents' jukebox. And though the band members are nearly AARP age, they still rock as hard as they did in 1989.

The show was part of the botanic gardens' "Live at the Garden" concert series. They host monthly outdoor shows every summer, and you can bring coolers, wine, whatever you need for the perfect picnic. We're dorks, so we made a themed menu basing our dishes around B-52s songs.

We had Roma Around the World Hummus Wraps, My Own Private Idaho Potato Salad, and Cosmic Thing Fruit Salad:For the hummus wraps, we spread some storebought red pepper hummus on red chile tortillas and then stuffed them with Roma tomato slices, black olives, and lettuce. Rather than risk spoilage with Veganaise, I made the potato salad with olive oil, rice vinegar, pickle relish, white onion, and parsley. And the fruit salad contained strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwis, plums, pineapple, and pomegranate seeds.

Here I am with a glass of Chardonnay and a full plate. We finished the night out with Yellowtail Shiraz-Merlot. We thought about making vegan B-52s (the cocktail with Irish cream, Kalua, and triple sec), but I didn't have time to make vegan Irish cream. And it'd be hard to mix cocktails outside in the dark anyway.

Here's my friend Nathan with his plate piled high:

And Greg arrived a little late, so he finished off the leftovers:

They saved "Loveshack" for the last song and "Rock Lobster" for the encore. We had a B-52s dance party! Yea!

18 comments:

You're so lucky! The B-52's! And Rock Lobster is so one of my favorites! I used to love going to 80's night at one of my favorite clubs (er, back in the 90's) and when they would play Rock Lob everyone would go crazy!

yay for themed food, love the ode to B-52s. and since going vegan, i've really learned how dependent i was on mayo, and have become fond of using dressings that don't have veganaise...just simple oil, balsamic, and ms. dash. i hope you had a good time at the concert.

It looks like you had an awesome night!! Whenever "Loveshack" comes on the radio I have to turn it up to full blast and sing along...no matter who's in the car with me! That wrap has my mouth watering...what brand are the tortillas??

Okay, so the whole time I was typing this I had that song in my head :0)

I swear, you have more fun in one night than I do in a year! The B-52's? Lucky! And referring to your previous posts, beans rule. I'd eat beans all day... maybe. True bean story: I have been trying with all my deepest might to inflate my own bike tires w/o the help of a boy. And yet, I am simply not strong enough. So, I made a huge bean burrito for my dinner tonight, and tried again with the tire pump. The result? Beans make you strong as heck! Woo hoo! Lots of beans + lots of patience = fully inflated tires!

Oh I am flashing back to college! This song (Love Shack) was so big when I was in college (I graduated in 1990). All my sorority sisters loved it. My boyfriend Michael and I would make up our own lyrics to "Rock Lobster" driving around in his orange camaro. It sounds like you had a rockin' good time and great eats too!

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm a 9-year vegan, 19-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.